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By DE Editors

September 6, 2019

Additive Industries North America, Inc. announces the purchase of six MetalFAB1 systems by an aerospace company located in California. This firm order validates the Additive Industries’ concept of production-based metal powder bed fusion systems for overall equipment efficiency. When the order for six machines arrives at the customer site later this year, it will bring the installed base of MetalFAB1 systems to 10 with more possible in 2020, Additive Industries reports.

This customer was able to consolidate approximately 700 kg of powder in June with the four laser MetalFAB1 systems currently in operation. The application represents an inflection point in metal powder bed fusion part production where candidate parts were typically limited to fist-size volumes to meet return-on-investment calculations. With the MetalFAB1 systems this customer is able to cost effectively produce over 420x400 mm parts weighing 180 kg.

“This part is likely the largest, most complex powder bed fusion part ever produced in series production. We are proud of our multi-disciplinary team that worked with this customer to make this production a reality as well as the capabilities of our MetalFAB1 systems to print for days back to back,” says Shane Collins, general manager for Additive Industries North America, Inc.

“This order will bring the North America MetalFAB1 installed base to 17 systems, which has been achieved since machine number 1 was installed late in 2017. Considering each system has four, 500 [W] lasers, the powder consolidation capabilities would equal roughly 68 single laser systems,” he adds.

“The fast growth in North America is partly due to our focus on the aerospace sector and the aeronautics adoption curve for production additive manufacturing. We expect this growth to further accelerate when our customers publicly release their applications and more companies are able to visualize the large, complex parts that can be manufactured on the MetalFAB1 system in titanium, aluminium, steel and nickel based alloys,” add Daan Kersten, CEO of Additive Industries.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.